FBI investigating California massacre as 'act of terrorism'

San Bernardino: The FBI is investigating this week's massacre of 14 people by a married couple in California as an 'act of terrorism', officials said yesterday, noting that the female shooter had pledged allegiance to a leader of the militant group Islamic State.

Tashfeen Malik, 27, a native of Pakistan who lived in Saudi Arabia for more than 20 years, and her US born husband, Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, were killed in a shootout with police hours after the Wednesday attack during a holiday party at the Inland Regional Center social services agency in San Bernardino, about 60 miles (100 km) east of Los Angeles.

If the investigation does prove that the attack was the work of people inspired by Islamist militants, it would be the deadliest such attack in the United States since September 11, 2001.

Malik had pledged allegiance to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in an online post, David Bowdich, assistant director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Los Angeles office, said at a news conference.

But the US official said there was no evidence that Islamic State even knew who the shooters were.

Islamic State, which has seized large parts of Syria and Iraq, took claim for the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris in which gunmen and suicide bombers killed 130.

Farook family attorneys said there was no evidence that either suspect had been associated with any terrorist group.